Tor
Tor is an island province located in the southern reaches of the Eelian Empire. The largest island currently within Eelia's sovereignty, It is separated from the next southernmost province, Alexia, by an eighty mile channel known as the Torren Channel. Triangular in shape, the landmass is characterized by two intersecting mountain ranges that comprise the majority of landspace, one running north to south and the other east to west. The abundance of mountains in Tor also lavish it with an immense number of fertile valleys and plateaus, resulting in a prosperous agricultural identity. The capital city of the same name is located on the western coast of the island and is a major centre of sea commerce. Tor is particularly well-known for its heavy reliance and exhibition of naval superiority. The province is also infamous as the Empire's largest market for slave trading. Roughly one-third of the entire province's economy revolves around the purchase and sale of slaves, acquired either from Imperial Conquest or through the exploitation of non-citizen Eelians and the lower classes. Leadership of Tor has changed hands multiple times throughout its troubled history, but the incumbent Tyrnal family is the House of Graccus. Capital City The city of Tor, also namesake of the province, is the largest city in the province and also its administrative capital. It is built along a river delta flowing from Tor's largest mountain, splitting into three inlets that flow southwest into the ocean. The city, circular in pattern, is divided into four districts of varying size, all surrounding the Tyrnal palace complex constructed upon a central acropolis. The city boasts two separate harbors, a smaller one to house its warships and a larger one to accomodate sea trade. These two harbors, together, nearly rival in size the Liberium Portum in Astravia. Beyond the harbors is the immense market district of the city, which also houses the Empire's largest slave trade market. Vendors of fruits and vegetables often share market courtyards with auction blocks upon which thousands of slaves change hands every year. Necropolises and burial sites are famously distant from the city itself; citizens of Tor bury their dead in the mountains to the north, two days' ride from Tor's northern gates. History Tor traces its cultural roots to before the Orien Expedition, when the indigenous people of the island established a number of villages along both coastal regions and fertile valleys. These settlements, including the one that would eventually become the province's capital city, thrived on the productivity of the island's valleys and plateaus but it wasn't until the landings of the first Imperial ships that the settlements truly began to grow. Bolstered by Orien technology, the settlements grew into cities. Even during the Empire's Dark Ages, Tor independently thrived under its own power, boasting an autonomous government that lasted until the First Imperial Age, when the island was incorporated into the province of Alexia. In 115 EE, the citizens of Tor rebelled against Alexia and the Empire, declaring itself independent. The island's population far exceeded that of Alexia's to the east, and the desert province could not assert its dominance over Tor, especially given Tor's naval superiority. The rebellion culminated in the Siege of Alexia, in which an army of Torren rebels sustained a catastrophic amount of casualties to the harsh desert landscape and were then routed by the smaller but better trained contingent of Alexian soldiers defending the city. Even with Tor's army crushed, Alexia still did not have the means of invading Tor directly. In 122 EE, under threat of invasion from a combined contingent of naval and terrestrial powers from the other provinces, Tor agreed to relinquishing sovereignty to the Empire, instead only retaining semi-autonomous control over its own affairs. The Talavius family was appointed as the governing family. The Second Imperial Age saw governorship of the island province exchange hands multiple times. Each bloody coup tore the province apart in civil war, but with the inability of the fractured Empire to assert its control over Tor, chaos reigned for dozens of years. It was only toward the latter half of the Second Imperial Age that the family Graccus took ultimate control over the capital city. It has remained in power until the present day, even though the family's interests for the province repeatedly clash with both the Empire, and with its neighbors Batus and Alexia, a relationship that remains forced and bitter to this day.